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So you want to be a truffle-farmer…? (Part 2)
Our trufficulture adventure continues with a short history of black truffle cultivation in France, with a note on the unreasonable expense of synthetically truffle-scented olive oil.
So you want to be a truffle-farmer…? (Part 1)
Truffles are ugly, dirty, stink in a lascivious way, and excite wild desires in humankind and pigs alike. Apparently people will pay just about anything for these lumpish things. Hmm, what if you could grow them? Read on.
The Future of Fungal Freshness?
What if mushrooms weren’t grown in dank grow rooms by gnomes and elves, but instead grew right in their clever packaging on the way to market? Our student reporter interviews designer Agata Jaworska about her concept ‘Made in Transit,’ presented as her MS thesis at the renowned Dutch nexus, Design Academy Eindhoven.
Huitlacoche
This post was contributed by Fahma Bob, a student in my Mushrooms class, PLPA 319 For a gardener, Ustilago maydis can certainly be a little scary, especially if you don’t know what it is. Imagine going out to your sweet…
Riddled with ringworm?
Ringworm is a fungal infection of the skin–no worms are involved. That doesn’t make it a pleasant disease though. Here you can read up on the fungi that cause ringworm and a vaccine that can prevent it in animals. If you’re human, you’re on your own. We apologize if reading this post makes you itchy.
Beware! The Slime Mold!
Our intrepid reporter studies the science behind the movie, The Blob, debunking Dr. Meddow’s longstanding theory that The Blob is a mutant bacterium from outer space. Warning: this post contains actual ooze, plus a song that, if you get it in your head, will haunt you for days.
An adventure with Omphalotus
I was wandering through the Fall woods near Ithaca, New York when I stumbled upon what looked like a delicious surprise… upon closer inspection (and the observations of a trained mycologist), I realized that I had made the amateur mistake of confusing the tasty Chanterelle with the poisonous Jack O’Lantern mushroom Omphalotus illudens…
Daisuke Goto – The first to cultivate mushrooms in Samoa
Our correspondent and Cornell grad student visits Samoa, and reports on the state of mushroom cultivation methods in the South Pacific.
The Insect-Fungus War: Behavioral Fever
Fungi, heat, and height all figure into an insect phenomenon called behavioral fever.